There is a world wide upsurge in episodes of criminal activity regarding the operation of motorized vehicles, and or mobile mechanical conveyances. Citizens placed in a position of confrontation or under rule of authority for insignificant and/or malicious infractions or crimes deviate from authorized direction by such authorities to cease operation of said conveyances. When they fail to stop, the level of violation and resistance committed is significantly raised.
Under a civilian crisis, as in a traffic stop where the violator refuses to cease operation of a vehicle and continues on a course simply away from the pursuing agent of authority, the propensity for intense biological stress upon the operators has been shown to limit logical decision making ability, therefore decreasing concern for self and others. The operator fleeing from authority may take drastic risks to escape detainment, sometimes causing minor to extravagant property destruction, as well as minor to serious injuries, or often taking of a human life. The media and news institutions, as well as federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies have termed these as police chases, or high-speed pursuits.
There is a paradigm shift in the law enforcement industry leading toward progressive policy changes in the reduction of the types of crimes committed that permit officers, deputies, troopers, or agents to pursue the suspect in flight. This paradigm shift is a result of the growing public and courtroom disdain of pursuits that kill or maim innocent people. As a direct result of years of policy modifications by departments and agencies all over the world, the general knowledge of such change has spread, and the dilemma of whether to chase or not is debated.
There are many devices that attempt to help law enforcement agencies avoid, prevent, and end vehicle pursuits. One of the very first such devices is what are called stop sticks. Stop sticks are a tire deflation device (TDD) that can be deployed several different ways. One way is to have a person near the roadway in front of the vehicle being pursued, and as the vehicle approaches, the person throws the TDD into the roadway directly in the vehicle's path in hope that the tires run over the deflation spikes. The obvious challenges with this is getting a person positioned ahead of the pursued vehicle, having the person throw the device in the roadway (which the vehicle can steer around it), retrieving the device from the roadway so that other non intended vehicles don't run over it, the danger of the person deploying the device being struck by the pursued or chase vehicle(s), and the possibility of the chase vehicle after having one or more of its tires deflated losing control and causing a crash.
Another way as described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,758,628 by Curry, Jr. is to have the stop sticks mechanically deployed by another pursuit vehicle, so as to avoid a person having to manually deploy the tire deflation device from the side of the road, exposing themselves to danger. However, this still does not solve the challenge of stopping the pursuit as the suspect vehicle can continue on its course of action, now possibly more uncontrollable than before. In addition, technological advances in tire manufacturing have made “run-flat-type” tires available for most vehicles, leaving a tire deflation device unpractical in some circumstances.
Another device designed to help eliminate vehicle pursuits is that of an electronic component fired to the suspect vehicle, with the intention of getting it to stick. A gun-type device is placed on the front of a law enforcement vehicle loaded with a device that is fired and designed to apply itself to the vehicle and track its location using GPS sensors from within, and transmitting such data to a receiving party. This technology aides law enforcement in the dilemma of whether or not to pursue, as they may fire the projectile, turn the police vehicle around, and let the suspect vehicle go. The suspect within the pursued vehicle will assume it has avoided capture from law enforcement authorities and presumably will resume normal motor vehicle operation that is less likely to cause a crash. The law enforcement agency tracks the suspect vehicle through use of the devices GPS transmitter located on the back of the vehicle, and plans where, when, and how the law enforcement agency will seize the vehicle in a safe place and take custody of the occupant(s). One such invention is U.S. Pat. No. 7,207,274 by Plew et al. that provides a method and system of firing a projectile comprised of a sticky medium containing a sensor within. They describe that a two-part dielectric gel polymer encased in the tip of the projectile will stick to a target when fired from a weapon, and subsequently transmit many different possibilities of data, depending on its mission and predetermined encased sensor, one being GPS, to a remote receiving apparatus. One of the pitfalls with a sticky substance used at a contact point is that it may not adhere to the targets surface when fired at a high velocity from a vehicle traveling at a very high rate of speed, and that the device houses a heavy payload of electronic equipment making adhesion even more difficult.